Norway outs NZ SAS's position

The location and activities of New Zealand's secretive Special Air Service (SAS) troops in Afghanistan have been revealed by Norway's defence chief.

General Sverre Diesen told the Oslo-based newspaper VG last week the SAS would replace a Norwegian special forces contingent that had been based at Kabul, the Sunday Star Times reported.

The Norwegians had been involved in the arrest of "several wanted insurgent leaders responsible for planning and running suicide attacks against targets in the Kabul region", Gen Diesen said.

The SAS would "take over" from the Norwegians, he said.

They would also attempt to stop suicide bombing attacks.

Tom Bakkeli, the journalist who wrote the VG story, told the Sunday Star Times he understood the SAS would continue some of the Norwegians' work .

"All the operations are high-risk," Mr Bakkeli said. One Norwegian commando had been killed in Logar province, south of Kabul.

The Defence Force would not discuss the Norwegian disclosure, saying it was policy to not discuss SAS operations.

The VG story is not the first time details of an SAS deployment have been reported overseas while the New Zealand government remained silent.

In 2002 Prime Minister Helen Clark was forced to confirm the SAS was in Afghanistan after the White House website revealed their presence.

- NZPA